Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Rachael Hamm sits in her cell at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Rutherford County courts are using a private probation company, which profits by collecting monthly probation fees and fees for drug-testing and other services. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 29, 2016 photo, Steven Gibbs, stands with his wife, Debbie, in the motel room they share with their daughter and son-in-law in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Gibbs, whose disability check and wife's wages don't leave enough for an apartment security deposit, says he could never satisfy a probation officer who wanted $45 every week for company fees and court fines. (AP Photo/Adam Geller)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Rachael Hamm sits in her cell at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Tucked in one corner of the Rutherford County Jail's "C" block, cell 2 has a pair of steel sleeping platforms, a sink and toilet, and little else. For Hamm, jailed for her third violation of probation in two years, this is home until at least April. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Rachael Hamm, an inmate at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center, discusses her probation violation in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "It's been a revolving door," says Hamm, who has run up $5,000 in probation fees since a 2012 arrest for possession of marijuana. "I've missed Thanksgiving. I've missed my baby's first Christmas.... I loved to have got to see a picture of him and I didn't even recognize him." (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Rachael Hamm shows the tattoos of her children's names as she sits in her cell at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Rutherford County courts are using a private probation company, which profits by collecting monthly probation fees and fees for drug-testing and other services. The county is being sued for using the private company because some say it is not fair to trap those on probation in a cycle of debt. Hamm says she struggles to take care of her two children because of the probation fees she has to pay. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Rutherford County Sheriff Robert F. Arnold stands in his office in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Probation is supposed to substitute for jail or prison, requiring offenders to report regularly and maintain good behavior. But in this fast-growing county outside Nashville and more than a dozen states, probation for misdemeanors is a profit-making - and increasingly contentious - venture. "It's not supposed to be about the money," says Arnold, noting that he chooses words carefully in a county sued for its use of for-profit probation. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Rutherford County Sheriff Robert F. Arnold discusses the probation system in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "It's not supposed to be about the money," says Arnold, noting that he chooses words carefully in a county sued for its use of for-profit probation. "The unfortunate part of our judicial system is once you get caught up in it, it's like a rat wheel you can never get out of because of some of the fines and the probation." (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016 AND THEREAFTER - In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Rutherford County Sheriff Robert F. Arnold discusses the probation system in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "It's not supposed to be about the money," says Arnold, noting that he chooses words carefully in a county sued for its use of for-profit probation. "The unfortunate part of our judicial system is once you get caught up in it, it's like a rat wheel you can never get out of because of some of the fines and the probation." (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Fred Robinson talks about his probation and struggles to pay his fines and court fees, from a hospital bed at St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Robinson endures recurrent internal bleeding and cirrhosis that forced him to give up a restaurant job. He says he told a probation officer that his $750 monthly disability check left nothing for court costs, fines and fees. But a judge renewed his probation and extended it. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Fred Robinson talks about his probation and struggles to pay his fines and court fees, from a hospital bed at St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "I'm just hoping I can get it out of my life," Robinson says. "It doesn't make no sense for 11 months and 29 days to turn into five years for nothing - or for money." (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

Credit: The Associated Press

This Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 photo shows attorney Jack Long in his office in Augusta, Ga. Probation is supposed to substitute for jail or prison, requiring offenders to report regularly and maintain good behavior. But in more than a dozen states, probation for misdemeanors is a profit-making - and increasingly contentious - venture. "The system is designed to sell as many probation services as possible," says Long who has brought 18 suits against one company, Sentinel Offender Services. "For each service they sell, they make a profit." He calls the system "cash register justice." (Michael Holahan/Augusta Chronicle via AP)

Credit: The Associated Press

In this Jan. 29, 2016 photo, Steven Gibbs, 61, sits in the motel room he shares with his wife, Debbie, and their daughter and son-in-law in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "Half the time I'm scared to go outside the door," says Gibbs, 61, a former construction worker who has been jailed twice since late 2013 after he couldn't pay hundreds of dollars in probation fees for driving on a suspended license. Despite a court order barring the county and a private probation company from jailing him again, those fears linger. (AP Photo/Adam Geller)

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee — Outside the $200-a-week motel room that Steven Gibbs and his family call home, the afternoon sun sparkled. Inside, though, he had the curtains pulled tight. After working third shift at a round-the-clock McDonalds, his wife, Debbie, sat on the edge of one bed, her eyes closed. But the hour didn't matter.